The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This is a central discussion thread for the feature, in which I invite you to post any feedback along with your responses to each column's topic. A link to the latest article can always be found here in the first post, along with a link to the complete archive.

As NBA Live continues to evolve into a viable alternative to NBA 2K for basketball gamers seeking a sim experience, it's important that it becomes a well-rounded title. This means that on top of quality gameplay that realistically depicts the NBA, modes must also be deep and engaging. It's also important to include some additional content beyond the current NBA teams. NBA Live has obviously found a great hook in the global courts found in The Streets, as well as WNBA players, but one area where it could stand to improve is in its usage of historical content, specifically NBA Legends.

It's tough to match what NBA 2K has done in terms of utilising Legends, not only with its historical squads but also the All-Time Teams. However, NBA Live could do a little more with the Legends that EA Sports has licensed, beyond simply featuring them in Ultimate Team. From Decade All-Stars to the ability to assign Legends to the current teams, there are ways that they could (and should) have a bigger presence in NBA Live. There are some prominent names missing however, Legends that I'd love to see in EA's game once more. Licensing some of them is easier said than done, but should it ever be feasible, these are the Top 5 Legends I'd like to see in NBA Live.

As with the NLSC Podcast, I'm going with a central discussion thread for The Friday Five. A link to the latest feature can always be found in the first post, along with a link to the full archive. For those who missed last week's feature, I listed my five biggest pet peeves in basketball video games.

As you can probably guess, I’m a big fan of basketball video games. You’d certainly hope that I would be, given that I’m a running a website dedicated to basketball video gaming. While they’re not the only titles that I play, basketball games are certainly among my favourites and whether it’s the more realistic approach of NBA Live and NBA 2K, or the arcade style of NBA Jam, I’ve had a lot of fun with them over the years. However, as we all know too well, basketball games definitely have their frustrating and annoying moments.

There are plenty of major, gamebreaking issues that cause us frustration – cumbersome controls, disappointing AI and so on – but that’s not what I’m talking about today. I’m talking about some of the little things that don’t necessarily ruin basketball games or render them completely unenjoyable, but at the very least take something away from the experience. These are my five biggest basketball video game pet peeves…or at least the ones that spring immediately to mind.

All genres of video games have their bad releases. Basketball games, be they arcade or simulation oriented, are definitely not exempt from that. However, just as some bad films or television shows are guilty pleasures, so too are certain subpar video games. This week, I’m taking a look at some basketball games that are far from classics, yet are still interesting and even enjoyable in their own way.

I’d like to stress that while I’m calling these games “bad” due to their various shortcomings or the fact that they’re inferior imitations of better basketball titles, most of them do have some redeeming factors, which is what makes them entertaining. These are certainly subjective opinions, so you may not share my view on all of the games and indeed some of them have received positive reviews here and there. With that said, this is my list of five basketball games that are bad, yet still entertaining.

As many of you may already be aware, I'm Australian and do currently reside in the Land Down Under. There's a lot of things I love about my country, but the later release dates for DVDs, video games and consoles isn't one of them. I'm getting a PlayStation 4 on launch day along with NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14, but for my fellow Aussies and I, launch day is November 29th. If you live in North America and are getting your hands on the PS4 today, the rest of us around the world are certainly envious right about now.

However, my two week wait until the PlayStation 4 and its launch titles arrive in Australia has handed me an obvious topic for this week's Friday Five: five things I'm doing while waiting for the PS4, at least in terms of my gaming habits. What's going to fill the void while I wait to indulge in some next generation gaming? Read on to find out.

As I mentioned in last week's Friday Five, I've been spending my gaming time occupying myself with this and that as I wait for the Australian release of the PlayStation 4, along with NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14. In addition to the five things I listed in last week's column, I've also had another glance at International Basketball 2009, a title you may remember from the Friday Five a couple of weeks ago when I listed five basketball games that were bad, yet still entertaining. My opinion of the game hasn't changed much since then, though I still find the idea of an unlicensed basketball game very intriguing.

While I'm still more interested in playing NBA sims and the occasional arcade title, I can't help but wonder if there's a market for a quality unlicensed basketball game. Given how much I used to enjoy World League Basketball on the Super Nintendo back in the day, it'd be something that I'd at least have to check out. Therefore, this week I'm listing the five reasons I'd like to see an unlicensed basketball video game, preferably one that plays better than International Basketball 2009.

I finally got my hands on the PlayStation 4 in the early hours of this morning, thanks to a midnight launch. As such, I’ve finally been able to play NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 next gen. I intend on spending a lot more time with both games before posting detailed impressions and full reviews but for the moment, I’d like to share some early thoughts on both next gen basketball titles.

Before I go any further, I’d like to stress that I’ve spent less than a day with both games, so I will be going into more detail in the future. I also reserve the right to change my mind as I continue to notice the good and bad things in both games, as well as evaluate the changes and fixes made by patches that will come through in the near future. With that said, here are some of my early impressions of NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 on PS4, in five points.

Having picked up NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 next gen last Friday, I’ve offered a few initial impressions of each game in both the Friday Five and the latest episode of the NLSC Podcast. I’ll continue to share my impressions of both games in the lead up to writing my full reviews, but this week I wanted to talk a little about some of the features that I believe NBA Live and NBA 2K need as we move forward.

While NBA Live 14 isn’t nearly as bare-bones as NBA Live 06 on the Xbox 360 and a lot of great work has gone into the features of NBA 2K14 next gen, there are a couple of staples of basketball gaming that are missing, as well as some other features that I’d like to see implemented. As such, this week I’m listing five features that I believe both games should add before we get too far into the new generation.

My apologies if this week’s topic comes off as a little cheap, but I really do enjoy doing the NLSC Podcast every week and it’s only natural that we plug our original content from time to time. Quite a few of you are tuning in to the show every week and have sent in questions for our mailbag segments, which definitely encourages us to keep getting together to talk about some of our favourite subjects and recording the conversation so that you can all listen to it. We certainly appreciate the support!

Needless to say, we’re always keen to expand our audience, so for this week’s Friday Five I’m picking five episodes of the NLSC Podcast that I recommend listening to, if you’re wondering what it’s all about and are looking to get into the show. Consider them my “editor’s picks” from the first year and a bit of the NLSC Podcast.

I personally wouldn't call Looney Tunes B-ball a bad game. I played it when it as a kid when it was new on the SNES and I loved it. I loved playing all kinds of basketball games even if they were bad and there were so many games that were worse than this

As 2013 swiftly draws to a close, there are just a couple of Fridays left in the year and thus only a couple of editions of The Friday Five before we find ourselves in 2014. I’ve definitely enjoyed using this column to express my opinions throughout the year and hopefully, it’s given you all something fun and interesting to read every Friday. I’m looking forward to bringing you more editorials and Top 5 countdowns in the new year.

This week, I thought I’d take a look back at some of my favourite editions of The Friday Five so far. These aren’t in any particular order, but they’re all features that were either fun to write or stand out as some of my favourite topics to discuss. If you can forgive the shameless plug, read on to find out my five favourite Friday Fives from 2013.

We’ve come to the final edition of The Friday Five for 2013, as we find ourselves a mere four days away from a brand new year. Last week, I took a look back as I picked my five favourite Friday Fives from the first year of the column. This week, I’m looking ahead to the future, listing five things that I’m looking forward to in the coming year.

2013 was certainly an interesting year for our community, with several large modding projects, the launch of a new generation of consoles, the return of NBA Live after four years on the sideline and a very memorable NBA Finals series between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Having said that, I believe that 2014 will have its fair share of interesting events, great games, highlights and moments from the NBA and of course, fun times with basketball video games. So, without any further ado and in no particular order, here are 5 Things I’m Looking Forward To In 2014.

As I continue to play NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 next gen, I’m naturally noticing aspects of the games that really impress me, as well as elements that I feel still need some work but certainly have a lot of potential. Needless to say, I’m also noticing a few things that I really hope both developers can avoid in the future.

I do actually want to start talking about some of the more positive aspects of both games in upcoming Friday Fives but this week, I’m focusing on that last category: the things I want EA Sports and 2K Sports to avoid. These include ongoing and re-emerging problems in basketball video games, as well as a few newer issues that I believe need to be nipped in the bud.

In last week’s Friday Five, I mentioned that I’d like to talk a little more about the positive things in NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 next gen, so that’s exactly what I’m doing starting this week. I was originally going to compile a list that covered both games, but I found that I couldn’t narrow my selections down to five. Therefore, this week I’ll be covering NBA Live 14, to be followed by a list for NBA 2K14 next Friday.

It’s been said many times before, but it’s been a rough comeback so far for NBA Live, with NBA Live 14 receiving some scathing reviews from the gaming media and basketball gamers alike. However, the game has also shown potential and some minor improvements following the first title update, with more fixes on the way. While there’s still a long road ahead, I’ve recently been enjoying spending some time with the game and as such, I’ve compiled a list of what I feel are the five best things in NBA Live 14.

Last week, I listed what I feel are the five best things in NBA Live 14. I’m continuing the trend of focusing on the positive in this week’s Friday Five, as I take a look at the next gen version of NBA 2K14 and some of my favourite elements of the game so far.

To be honest, I still have mixed feelings about NBA 2K14 on PlayStation 4. It’s by no means a terrible game, yet I’ve had trouble really getting into it as I don’t feel myself drawn into any of the game modes as in years past. Having said that, there’s certainly greatness in the game that stands out and deserves to be acknowledged. So, without any further ado, here are my picks for the five best things in NBA 2K14 next gen.

For a while now, I’ve been meaning to do another Top 5 countdown for the Friday Five, as well as share some thoughts on a topic that’s related to the real NBA. Therefore, this week I’m killing two birds with one stone. Since we’re at the halfway mark of the 2013/2014 NBA season and the topic came up during Episode #63 of the NLSC Podcast, I’ve decided to rank the Top 5 candidates for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award…at least so far.

The MVP award can be a controversial subject. After all, not everyone agrees on the criteria for selecting the winner, or even what the honour actually means. To me, it’s an award that gives recognition to a standout player for their performance during the season; a player who, one could argue, had the best overall season when factors such as individual brilliance, noteworthy games and their impact on their team’s success are all taken into account. I don’t think that many of these picks will shock anyone, but here is the MVP race as I see it, halfway through the 2014 campaign.

In previous Friday Fives, I’ve mentioned that I’m not a big fan of the “hold Shoot” method of shooting free throws that is currently used by both NBA Live and NBA 2K. While I’m still partial to the old T-Meter approach, it’s admittedly outdated and probably a little too old school at this point, so I’d be in favour of both games implementing a new method altogether.

Don’t get me wrong. The current method is serviceable, straightforward and provides the user with enough on-screen feedback to become reasonably proficient from the foul line (at least in NBA 2K). However, it does have its drawbacks and I believe that it’s time for some innovation in this area of the game. So, without any further ado, here are five reasons why I want to see a new method of shooting free throws in NBA Live and NBA 2K.

After 30 years, David Stern’s tenure as the commissioner of the NBA came to an end last Saturday, February 1st. For those of us who grew up watching the NBA in the 80s and 90s, he’s the only NBA commissioner we’ve ever known, so it feels a little strange to see someone else in the role. For the first year or so, I’m guessing it’ll be a bit weird to see Adam Silver presenting trophies, not to mention his signature on the basketball.

Last week, Yahoo! NBA posted a slideshow spotlighting five of David Stern’s missteps, a well-chosen selection of some of his most noteworthy blunders on the job. It’s certainly fair to acknowledge failure along with success, but with Stern bashing being such a popular pastime for NBA fans, it’s easy to forget all of the good things that he’s done for the league. Therefore, this week I’m taking a look at five great things that David Stern did during his time as commissioner of the NBA.

Since the 2014 All-Star Weekend in New Orleans is upon us, I feel it’s only right that this week’s Friday Five covers a topic related to the NBA’s midseason classic. Since I talked about the things that I believe the dunk contest needs as well as my five favourite All-Star Weekends in the lead up to last year’s All-Star Weekend, this year I thought I’d mix things up a bit with a topic that combines video games and real life.

The addition of the All-Star Weekend in NBA Live 2005 was a definite highlight in the NBA Live series, finally bringing an often requested and long awaited mode to the game. The dunk contest that was featured from NBA Live 2005 through NBA Live 09 included some crazy slams; a few of them were a little out there, but others could feasibly be pulled off in real life. This week, I’m listing five dunks from NBA Live’s Slam Dunk Contest that I’d like to see broken out in the real competition.

As you may have heard in our chat with NBA Live 14 Gameplay Designer Scott O’Gallagher, the NBA Live development team at EA Tiburon is eager to get our feedback on the current game and the official patch, as well as our ideas and suggestions for NBA Live 15. As such, we’ll be compiling our NBA Live 15 Wishlist very soon.

I’ll be going into more detail when I create our official NBA Live 15 Wishlist thread in the NLSC Forum, but since Scott and the rest of the developers are interested in hearing each of our top five to ten suggestions for the game, I thought I’d use this week’s Friday Five to get the ball rolling and briefly talk about some improvements for the next NBA Live. Without any further ado, here are five things I want to see in NBA Live 15.

As I’ve mentioned several times before, I’m a huge fan of Dynasty Mode, as it’s been my game mode of choice in NBA Live since it was implemented as Franchise Mode way back in NBA Live 2000. Before the game came out last year, I talked about the things that I wanted to see in NBA Live 14’s Dynasty Mode, though I did temper my expectations somewhat as I knew there was much to focus on as the development team looked to relaunch the series.

As it turns out however, I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by what Dynasty Mode has on offer in NBA Live 14. While there are still improvements to be made, features to be added and elements to be tweaked, the mode has returned fairly well-rounded and with some pleasing additions. As such, this week I’m listing the five best things in NBA Live 14’s Dynasty Mode.

One of my favourite features in NBA Live 14 is LIVE Season’s BIG Moments. For the uninitiated, BIG Moments allows you to replay significant moments from the 2013/2014 NBA season, ranging from just a few seconds to an entire half of gameplay. As gamewinning shots and memorable performances occur in real life, we see them appear as challenges in NBA Live 14.

As I noted on the NLSC’s Facebook and Twitter, Gerald Green’s career game in the Phoenix Suns’ big win over the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday seems like a good candidate to appear as a BIG Moment in NBA Live 14. That got me thinking about some of my favourite BIG Moments thus far, which ultimately resulted in a countdown for this week’s Friday Five. So, without any further ado, here are my Top 5 BIG Moments in NBA Live 14…at least to this point.

Earlier in the week, JaoSming spent some time updating and spotlighting our many patching resources. Given an opportunity to keep a theme running through our features this week – the latest Top 10 Plays and Podcast also exhibit and discuss patching respectively – I thought that for this week’s Friday Five, I’d offer a few general tips on patching, mostly for people who are looking to get started.

For as long as the NLSC has been around, our community has been making patches for NBA Live and in more recent years, NBA 2K as well. We have a talented and resourceful patching community that helps one another through detailed tutorials and general advice, but for those just getting into patching, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Hopefully, these five tips will give you an idea of what’s required and how to start out on the right foot.

It’s Wishlist Season again here at the NLSC! As you may have already seen, we’ve started compiling our Wishlist for NBA Live 15 and in this week’s Tuesday Triple, JaoSming outlined some of the things that he wants to see in NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15 alike.

Of course, the concept of the Wishlist does invite some scepticism, as a contingent of basketball gamers are unsure that it’s worth all the effort, or that it will make any difference to the upcoming games. I take a far more optimistic point of view however and see the Wishlists as an important undertaking for our community, to help improve the games that we’re so passionate about. As such, this week’s Friday Five highlights the importance of our Wishlists, as I take a look at five reasons why we compile them.

As basketball video games have evolved and become more advanced, we basketball gamers have had to hone our skills and develop new strategies to enjoy continued success on the virtual hardwood. What worked so well in early basketball games usually isn’t as effective now that developers have more sophisticated technology in terms of artificial intelligence, player physics, and so on.

However, one constant throughout the years is that there’s usually a move or two in every basketball game that is very difficult to guard against and can usually be readily exploited when you absolutely need to score. This week, I’m taking a look at what I feel are five of the most unstoppable moves in basketball video games.

Since I’ve previously looked at some of the most unstoppable moves in basketball video games, this week I thought I’d take a look at some of the best power-ups that we’ve seen in virtual hoops. Generally speaking, power-ups are probably not a concept that most people associate with basketball video games. However, they do have a presence in the genre, mostly in arcade-oriented titles but also in more subdued forms in certain sim releases.

As I’ve mentioned before, while I want to get a sim experience out of the NBA Live and NBA 2K series, I also enjoy arcade style basketball games for a change of pace. Having some fun and crazy power-ups certainly adds to the arcade experience, and special abilities in general make games more interesting and varied. So, without any further ado, here are my picks for the five best power-ups in basketball video games.

If you’ve listened to some of the recent episodes of the NLSC Podcast, you may recall us talking about mini-games and how they helped create well-rounded basketball video games, with a variety of experiences on offer. If nothing else, they provided us with something to play when we didn’t feel like diving into a full length game, or we just had a few minutes to kill.

It remains to be seen whether that kind of content will make its way back into the NBA Live and NBA 2K series, though you’ll certainly find mention of it in our Wishlists. In the meantime, we can reflect on some of the most enjoyable bonus experiences in previous releases, which is what I’m doing this week as I list what I feel are the five best mini-games in basketball video games.

A few weeks back, I provided five tips for patchers that were mostly aimed at people who were just getting started in the patching scene. This week, I thought I’d offer five more tips for patchers, with a focus on what to do after you’ve mastered the basics and are getting more comfortable patching the games.

These are fairly general tips regarding our patching community and culture, so if you’re looking for information on how to create a specific patch, please consult the appropriate tutorial. However, I do have a couple of things to say about developing good patching habits and being a productive member of our patching community, so please read on for five more tips for NBA Live and NBA 2K patchers.

While we generally deal with sim oriented basketball video games in our community, several of us are also fans of the arcade style games. As I’ve said several times before, I’m an NBA Jam fan from way back in the day, and I still like the idea of having arcade basketball games as a change of pace from five-on-five simulation fare. Sometimes, you just feel like a quick game with somersault dunks from the rafters.

This week, I’m counting down my Top 5 arcade basketball games. It’s a slightly easier list to compile than the Top 5 simulation basketball games, as arcade basketball games tend not to have annual releases, thus there are fewer of them and it’s easier to pick out the best five from the cream of the crop. I might try to tackle the Top 5 sim titles in a future Five, but for now, here are my picks for the Top 5 arcade basketball games.

As JaoSming noted in the Tuesday Triple, it’s been a while since an arcade basketball title was released. A little while ago, we were teased by the prospect of a new NBA Jam on the game’s official Twitter page, by way of an “unauthorised” Tweet that has since been deleted. While EA Sports currently has no announcements regarding the future of the NBA Jam series, I’m hoping that we will indeed see a new NBA Jam game sooner rather than later.

The overarching reason of course is that I’m a big fan of NBA Jam from way back in the day and as long as I’m gaming, I’m interested in seeing new releases from my favourite series (incidentally, I’m still waiting on that Fallout 4 announcement, Bethesda). I do have a few specific thoughts on the matter though, so without any further ado, here are five reasons why I want another NBA Jam game.

Now that JaoSming has changed the focus of Dumb Mondays from random trivia to a random assortment of facts, opinions and discussion topics, I don’t feel quite as guilty about borrowing the original concept for a Friday Five topic. This week, I’m trying my hand at serving up some trivia about a few of my all-time favourite basketball video games.

Basically, this is a collection of facts and trivia that I’ve wanted to talk about, but haven’t been able to work into any of my Friday Fives so far. Chances are I’ll revisit them if the right topics present themselves, but just in case I don’t find a way to bring them up again, here are 5 Random Basketball Video Game Facts that I hope you’ll enjoy reading about.

More often than not, I’m writing about basketball video games in the Friday Five, which only stands to reason; the NLSC is a website dedicated to basketball gaming, after all. However, I like to write about the real NBA as well, and I haven’t done that for a few weeks now. As such, I figured it was about time for another NBA related article.

For this week’s Five, I’ve decided to take five topics related to the NBA that I’ve been thinking about recently, and pose them as questions. For each question, I’ve provided a short answer, along with a few of my thoughts on the matter. So, without any further ado, here are My Answers to 5 NBA Questions.

After offering up a few opinions on the real NBA in last week’s edition of the Friday Five, this week I’m back to talking about basketball video games. Being a basketball gamer that prefers to see a healthy amount of realism in the annual titles, I thought I’d reflect on some of the non-sim elements that have found their way into sim basketball games over the years.

For the sim-oriented gamer, these elements can range from pet peeves and minor irritations to major distractions and issues that can severely affect one’s enjoyment of a game. However, as you’ll find out, at least one of the items on this list isn’t such an unwelcome idea. Without any further ado, here are 5 Non-Sim Elements in Sim Basketball Games.

I’m going with a lighter topic for The Friday Five this week, as I list my top five favourite basketball video game commercials. No doubt I’ll be back to covering topics with a little more substance sooner rather than later, but I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some memorable advertisements for NBA Live, NBA 2K and NBA Jam that got us talking about the games, or at the very least were entertaining to watch.

Just to clarify before I begin the countdown, I’m picking commercials and promotional spots here, as opposed to pure gameplay trailers. Including both in the one countdown would make for a long list and some very difficult choices, so picking my five favourite gameplay trailers is a topic for another day. With that said, here are my 5 Favourite Basketball Video Game Commercials!

The NLSC was founded as a fansite for NBA Live, a series that we still cover to this day. In recent years, we’ve also expanded our coverage to the NBA 2K series, as well as NBA Jam (primarily the recent releases from EA Sports). However, there have been several other NBA and basketball video games released over the years, some of which I covered in a previous Friday Five.

This week, I’m taking a look at five more basketball video games that you may have forgotten, or indeed never knew about. If nothing else, they haven’t been talked about in a while, so let’s go back through basketball gaming history and reflect on some titles that aren’t quite as well-known or popular as NBA Live, NBA 2K, or NBA Jam, but are interesting to look back on nevertheless.

I had double dribble on nes and the free throws were really hard to make. I also had action 98 as I was a Kobe fan and huge chick Hearn fan growing up in LA. Gameplay was okay, obviously commentary was great but the most frustrating part about the game was the lack of roster changes you could make. Also you couldn't manually change a player's number so duplicate numbers would be bumped up by 1.